The present invention is related to the field of software development and, more particularly, to a method and system of merging e-mail replies containing software comments and revisions.
Open source development of software can be a very inclusive process relying on feedback from multiple sources. Open source software, by definition, may be freely accessed and modified by a group of individuals. Software code can, in some instances, be large, cumbersome, and difficult to manage by a single individual. Thus, one manner of expediting the development of open source software code is to exchange comments among members of an e-mail listserve.
A member of the listserve may post a piece of code, sometimes known as a patch, to the other members of the listserve. The other members may review the patch and post back to the sender comments, suggestions or alternatives to the posted patch. The sender may then have to read each reply message individually for comments based on the code while scrolling within each message for reference to which each comment pertains. Since other members are free to comment in an individual manner, comments can be inserted at the beginning of an individual reply message or be manually weaved into the original message and code. In some cases, the sender may miss some of the comments. Additionally, in other cases, the sender is set to the task of extracting and organizing multiple reply message comments relevant to the same line of code which may be commented on by multiple people.
Hence, there is a need for an improved method and system of merging e-mail replies containing comments and revisions to open source software.